Sorry for writing you late! But things seems to be going well and busy at home! Harry is working hard in football, and Helam is as well! And all the families are sooo cute :) Hendrix is looking adorable, Kiegan is looking adorable (and moody like her dad, haha) and I don't see Bo's face at all so I'm happy ;) Jk tell him I love him and I hope that all our families are doing well :)
But here is kind of what's going on here!
Sunday - So T didn't come :( but it was a good day nonetheless. We are still just working to get someone else to church, and it's been very difficult lately. But we won't give up :) After church we went and had our last dinner with our office couple, the Andersons :( They have helped out this mission so much and they are going to be missed by everyone. They left to go home to Washington on Tuesday. That night we talked about the change and growth you develop as you go throughout your mission. They wanted to become better member missionaries and assist the missionaries where they live. They also shared how their testimony has deepened and they can feel the difference now. It reminded me of a scripture in Alma 5:26...
I hope then when I feel that change, when I feel that love and that Spirit, I pray that I will never forget it.
Monday - We had meetings pretty much all day. Oh and it was Elder Quick's bday!!! I didn' have time to run up to Elkhart (it's 2 hrs away) but I still wished him a happy bday. After all the meetings we went to FHE for the YSA and that was great, too. After FHE we had to go and run some supplies over to another set of missionaries in Downtown Indianapolis. There we spent some time with the elders. We talked about faith and repentance. Some people struggle with repenting. Not with confessing, but with forgiving. One missionary expressed to us how even though he has repented he felt like all the bad things that were happening around him were because he must not have repented enough. He's right in a way. He's not right in thinking that he hasn't repented enough. The reason he feels bad is because he hasn't forgiven himself, so he hasn't allowed the atonement to work for him. And he's no different than most of us. Really the only thing inhibiting our ability to feel the spirit and benefit from the atonement and its cleansing effects is us. If we aren't willing to forgive ourselves, we aren't truly changing. It was a cool learning experience for me, too, and it was a very spiritual night.
Tuesday - We said goodbye to the Andersons. We got to help them gather all their stuff and we got to have one final prayer offered by Elder Anderson. What a powerful prayer he said, in which he fervently prayed for all the missionaries out in the mission field. I could feel the power behind that prayer. And it made me think, that's just the power of one prayer that I witnessed. There are millions of prayers like that out there throughout the world praying for the missionaries! After the prayers and goodbyes they left and we got to work. We went and talked to lots of people but no one was really interested in our message. Then we went around the Indy West stake and dropped off various supplies and stuff. After running things around for hours we had dinner with a LA family and it was a great evening.
Wednesday - We went on exchanges to Purdue University. It was a blast. I got to go with an Elder Green for the exchange. Campus is a fun place because there is just nonstop teaching and talking. So that's what we did for 6 hrs. After that we had a couple lessons with some Recent Converts, which made it a pretty successful day. There was a cool miracle though. While we were PCing Elder Lords and Wimmer were talking to a girl by a water fountain. She was just hanging out, not doing anything at all. Elder Lords invited her to come check out the Institute building and go on a little tour. They had a tour, they taught her about the restoration and she wanted to get baptized! It was amazing!! So we all just grinded and talked to as many people as we could. It was a good day. Oh and I met Brother Dunn at Purdue. He said you and his mom were best friends haha! I finally got to meet him, he is a really cool guy too. [Note from mom: Ten years ago when Hema was serving his mission, I joined the Ecuador Missionary Mom group which included moms of missionaries serving in the Quito, Guayaquil North and Guayaquil South missions. Marsha Dunn's son Sam served in the South mission. We met on email, then Marsha hosted several MM dinners, and we've all supported one another at missionary homecomings, weddings, funerals, etc. Our group of missionary moms have been close friends for over 10 years now! Our children's choices to serve missions have brought such blessings and wonderful people into our lives, and the gospel of Jesus Christ makes this such a small world.]
I also saw Sister Coburn's [from Laie, Hawaii] daughter and got to catch up with some people from Columbus. One of them was a Shoaf and she's related to that BYU guy (all Shoafs from Columbus are related). So it was a fun, busy and miracle-filled day.
Thursday - We had a meeting with President that morning and helped out Elder Taka and Elder Fonohema that day. After that we had a lesson with a RC in our branch and we had President come teach with us. He is a powerful teacher and we are blessed to have him as our mission president. After the lesson we tried to contact less actives and went back to the office to finish some paperwork.
Friday - We attended the Indy West Zone Meeting. It was great. The zone leaders are Elders Pauu and Wood.
They taught about how we can become more effective with our time and how we can set goals to help increase our vision for our Zone. Technically, Wimmer and I are part of the Indy West Zone. After attending that meeting we did a Temple session with our branch. I will never get sick of going to the temple. What a great place to be! I think we take it for granted in Bountiful. We literally lived like 15 min away and I still didn't go to the temple regularly. But now it is one of the most enjoyable experiences. Then went back to the office and finished some more work.
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| With Elder Pau'u |
Saturday - We had a service opportunity on Saturday to work at the Special Olympics. I LOVE it!!!!
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| WIth Elder Huntington |
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| Elder Taka (in BYU shirt) and Elder Pau'u |
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| With Elders Fonohema and Taka |
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| A car full of misionaries leaving the Special Olympics |
We got to run the awards table for softball and it's always amazing to see the beautiful smiles on the participants' faces when they come through :) The event took all day but it was worth it. I also got to announce the names of all the players and medals they won! It was pretty funny. There was one guy whose name was Joseph Smith.... We missionaries just went nuts cheering for him. Then a random guy walked up and said, "Did you Mormons plan that?" He smiled and laughed and we all had a good time. Because of the fun we had and the work we were doing everyone was asking what church we belonged to. And those who knew who we were really respected our beliefs. One coach was thanking us and talking to me when his friend came up and said, "Hey want to come and grab a bee---" He stopped because he saw my name tag. He looked and me, then looked at his friend, and said, "I mean, wanna come and grab a BEVERAGE?" Haha it made me laugh out loud and smile with gratitude because I knew he knew who I was and he respected my beliefs. So it was a fantastic day.
So I'm sorry for not emailing back yesterday. We were at the Special Olympics all day. But I do want to say congratulations to Tini boy and his family. It's great to hear about him giving a blessing to his baby. The power of the priesthood is amazing. That's just kind of my message to the family. Stay worthy of the priesthood. Exercise it worthily. And if you haven't received the priesthood yet, then prepare to receive it. I'm grateful for the priesthood and its influence in my life. From those priesthood holders like my dad, brothers, grandpas, uncles and cousins, to friends like our bishop, ward members, leaders, etc. All have played a pivotal role in getting me to where I am currently. The Priesthood has the power to shape futures -- the power to bind whatsoever is on earth to heaven. It is a gift of God's own power, given to us to wield for our families and fellowmen. I'm so grateful for the priesthood, and I'm so grateful for the chance I have to be with the family I love for ETERNITY. Please give my love to the family mom! Love you and I hope you all have a great week!
Ofa Lahi Atu
Elder Heimuli
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| Waiting up here to ambush the elders with a Nerf gun |
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